New Scientist Australian Edition

New Scientist covers the latest developments in science and technology that will impact your world. New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.

Elsewhere on New Scientist

A note from the chief subeditor

Humanity under the lens • Our understanding of the cosmos is a marvel, but we must also ponder our future in it

New Scientist Australian Edition

Omicron hits Hong Kong • Covid-19 cases are soaring among largely unvaccinated older groups and hospitals are overwhelmed, reports Michael Le Page

Will bitcoin help or hinder Ukraine? • With access to traditional banking services in Ukraine disrupted, cryptocurrencies can help people there access money – but the same is true in Russia, finds Matthew Sparkes

Special brain cells may signal when to start a new memory

Amazon rainforest nears tipping point to savannah

Mouse pups born from unfertilised eggs through genetic manipulation

Half of people in US have diminished IQ due to leaded petrol

Geese may have been the first birds to be domesticated

Quantum dot diet makes silkworms fluorescent

Field notes Keadby 2, Lincolnshire, UK • The UK’s last gas power plant As many people question the UK’s reliance on gas power, Adam Vaughan visits what is likely to be the last conventional plant in the country as it transitions to net zero

Code designed to protect against quantum hackers is ‘useless’

Easter Islanders relied on freshwater springs under sea

Our closest black hole is actually one star eating another

How a rodent’s fear shapes the rainforest

Bonobo infants get stressed out by the arrival of a younger sibling

Robotic ships could inspect undersea cables and drills

Ambitious global treaty agreed to tackle plastic pollution

Blue wings give dragonfly stealth capabilities

Clues to purpose of Stonehenge • The monument may have been a calendar – and now we know how it could have worked

Laser-like beams of waves from storms pound distant coasts

Plants may have conquered land thanks to microbe DNA

Booming sea life left geological signature

Profile of blood fats flags disease risks

Really brief

Mas rover may be near ancient ocean

Desert solar panels adapted to extract water from the air

Giant duck-billed dino took a tumble

Wildly wrong • Victorian ideals have perpetuated a myth of the passive female of the species. Promiscuity is a winning maternal strategy, says Lucy Cooke

#brainbooster • To err is fruitful Making deliberate mistakes is a surprising but effective way to improve your performance in many unexpected areas of life, writes David Robson

Botany 101

Your letters

Birds of a feather • It may seem as if we have little in common, but humans are more like avians than you think, says Simon Ings

Total recall • An emotional tale of a man’s reprieve from dementia explores what we forget and why, finds Jon O’Brien

Don’t miss

The sci-fi column • Prisoners of geography Three new science-fiction books grapple with the strangeness of uncharted terrain and ponder whether people make maps to guide the way or to hide the truth, finds Sally Adee

Battle of the mid-life bulge • It is a myth that extra belly fat in middle age is due to a slowing metabolism. So what does cause the dreaded spread and what can we do about it, asks Sara Novak

Blame your hormones?

Muscle vs fat

Evolution’s urban hothouse • City life is...